


All Legends Are True (Except When They’re Not)

by themunak



Category: Final Fantasy XIII, Okami
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-17
Updated: 2012-03-17
Packaged: 2017-11-02 01:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themunak/pseuds/themunak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s just extremely scared that the thing will eat them all whole and spit out the bones, and who’d be left to save Cocoon?</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Legends Are True (Except When They’re Not)

**Author's Note:**

> For a friend.
> 
> Originally posted at Tumblr.

Hope looks curiously at the Cie'th stone, wondering just what exactly it means by "wild white demon born before time" and why Fang and Vanille are so pale after hearing the stone's request.

It takes only a bit of prodding to get them to answer, and the story is just something unbelievable. The white demon, dubbed Shiranui by those who used to live in the east, was known for picking out certain people for the Viper Lindzei of Cocoon to eat and take, or so the legend goes. It's similar to the Megistotherian that roam around freely in body type and appearance, but its coat is cure white, and it trails flames of so many different colors from its back.

They also say that it could control the world around it, warp it as it pleased, like remove and regrow trees, summon thunder, lightning, ice or rain from a clear sky and even turn night to day, and day to night. That it's died once because of rocks falling from the sky, from Cocoon, but came back a hundred years later to terrorize the humans more. That it came back with more creatures that share its color and dangerous powers.

They say that the story of Shiranui is just something to scare the kids at night if they misbehave, and that it's just a _legend_. Or supposed to be.

Hope gets the mental image of a roaring, screaming, pure white Megistotherian with black flames coming out of its back and blood in its mouth, and he has to shudder. And feels sorry for the poor l'Cie who was supposed to kill it.

And feels absolute horror that now _they_ have to do it, or the Cie'th will never find rest.

He flexes his hands around huge yellow feathers as they ride the chocobos through the Archylte Steppe to track that animal down. He's scared. He's just extremely scared that the thing will eat them all whole and spit out the bones, and who'd be left to save Cocoon?

(A morbid little thought: If it kills them, maybe it'd be for the best, because then they wont turn to crystal or Cie'th. He squashes it almost immediately after its conception.)

Their search takes them to ruins of what used to be some kind of building built around and within an abnormally large tree that still bears fruit, and what large fruit they are. They're too high up to measure properly, but Hope thinks they might even be bigger than him, which is downright amazing.

Despite the building (a temple, Vanille supplies, a place of prayer) being reduced to rubble, the plants are flourishing. Everything is so _bright_ that he thinks the Sunleth Waterscape cant hold a candle to this little place tucked away from the rest of Gran Pulse. Hope's so fascinated with a bunch of trees that have leaves as pink as Lightning's hair that he almost forgets that a monster lives here.

And isn't this just a strange place for a legendary monster to live in?

Something round and wet suddenly makes it way to his palm and Hope jumps away, yelping in surprise. Lightning rushes towards him and grabs his arm.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I-- What _was_ that?"

He's answered by a confused, dog-like whine. When he looks back to his old position, he finds a big white dog with strange red markings all over its body, tilting its head at him.

Hope barely has time to wonder what a dog is doing here before Fang takes a swipe at it with her spear, and it jumps away. It's only a split second after the others bring out their own weapons that Hope realizes-- it's _Shiranui_.

His mental image is far off the mark, because while it's big enough to probably carry him, the dog isn't so monstrous and or scary-looking as the legend says. It's not trailing flames, but carrying a disc on its back that has fire coming out of it instead. It actually looks like someone's well-kept pet, and the way it looks at them is not like a wild animal looking at food, but a homeowner getting annoyed at guests that have the bad manners to attack it in its own house.

He feels a little ashamed of himself for pulling out his boomerang, but if the legends are true, then he shouldn't feel so guilty.

When Sazh's chocobo chick flies towards Shiranui and alights on its nose before everyone can start shooting, slashing and casting, it's like everything freezes on the spot. And when Shiranui smiles at the chick with the goofiest grin ever, Hope feels his jaw fall.

He finds himself having a very hard time pinning the word "monster" on the dog because of that display.

But obviously the others didn't share his thoughts (out of fear, maybe) and Hope tries to stop them before they can do something stupid. He runs towards Lightning and grabs her wrist, but she's already fired.

He doesn't know if it's hit, but it climbs up the side of one of the crumbled walls and disappears.

Lightning looks like she wants to yell at him for trying to get in their way, but Hope stays firm in the thought that Shiranui, or whatever its real name is, is not what the legends make it out to be. That it's not interested in killing everything and anything that crosses its path. That it just wants to live a peaceful life. Why would a bloodthirsty animal live in such a beautiful place, not attack them at first sight, and act so pleased at the chocobo?

They see it again a few days later. They've been driving themselves even harder after their meeting with Shiranui, and no one expects it to willingly show itself to them.

But then Hope sees it practically flying through the air to flatten a troublesome Navidon on the ground and send its accompanying Gorgonopsid running away with a loud growl that sounds more like a thunderclap. It's surprising, the way it commands itself now, but what's more shocking is the fact that the Navidon corpse is starting to bloom flowers and grass all over.

Shiranui lopes off before someone can think to challenge it, but Hope can swear that it winks at him as it streaks past him.


End file.
